Chocolate & caramel candy bars

A few days ago, I saw a video on the Instagram account @Parischezsharon which showed the production of caramel, nuts & chocolate bars by the pastry chef Carl Marletti. Without a second thought, I started making bars according to this model: a very crisp shortbread, a salted caramel, some nuts and a chocolate couverture. I declined this bar in two different models : cocoa shortbread + caramel + hazelnuts + biskelia chocolate (a biscuit milk chocolate by Valrhona) and plain shortbread + caramel + pistachios + raspberry inspiration, but you can of course make them as you wish , choosing your nuts and chocolate according to your inspiration and what you have available! I took the shortbread recipe on the blog FashionCooking and as usual, I used Nicolas Paciello's salted caramel recipe (my favorite recipe by far).

Prep time : 45 minutes + Caramel & chocolate crystallisation time + 15 minutes cooking
For 25 to 30 servings :

Salted caramel :

465g caster sugar

300g cream

135g semi-salted butter + 1 pinch of salt

Depending on the size of your bars, you may have a little too much caramel, but you can keep it without problem in an airtight box in the fridge for a few days / weeks.

Gradually melt the caramel in a saucepan (start with ¼ of the sugar, when it is melted, add another quarter and continue until the sugar runs out). Separately, heat the liquid cream.

When the caramel has a nice amber color, remove it from the heat and add LITTLE TO LITTLE the cream (it is important, you may get burned otherwise), stirring with a whisk. When all the cream is incorporated, put the caramel back on the heat and add the salted butter.

Cook for 5 to 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the caramel thickens a bit, so that you can pipe it after it has cooled.

To check that the caramel is enough cooked, you can pour a few drops on an ice cube, it will cool very quickly and you will see its final texture. If you see that the caramel is too fluid, continue cooking it until you have the right texture. Add the salt.

Store in a box and allow to cool completely (you can put it in the fridge or freezer to speed it up, but only when it is no longer hot).

Plain and cocoa shortbread :

The plain one :

150g T55 flour

50g brown sugar

100g softened salted butter

12g milk

The cocoa one :

130g T55 flour

12g unsweetened cocoa powder

50g brown sugar

100g softened salted butter

12g milk

Mix the butter and sugar until you have a creamy and homogeneous mix.

Add the milk, then the flour (and cocoa for the chocolate batter) and mix quickly until you get a homogeneous batter.

Etalez chacune des deux pâtes entre deux feuilles de papier sulfurisé sur 2 à 3mm d’épaisseur. Essayez d’étaler en forme de rectangle, en imaginant à l’avance la découpe de vos sablés (par exemple, pour faire des barres de 10-12cm de longueur, étalez votre pâte sur 25cm de longueur pour pouvoir la couper en deux puis découper des barres de 3cm de largeur).

Press each of the two preparations between two sheets of parchment paper (2 to 3mm thickness). Try to press them in the shape of a rectangle, imagining in advance the cutout of your shortbread cookies (for example, to make 10-23cm bars, you should make a 25cm long rectangle so that you can cut it in half before cutting 3cm wide bars).

Bake at 180°C for about 15 minutes, and pre-cut your bars right out of the oven. Do not move them, let them harden as they cool, but if you try to cut them when they are cold they may break.

Assemble :

Some hazelnuts (around 10 by chocolat bar)

Some pistacchios (around 20 by bars)

350 to 400g milk chocolate (I used Biskelia by Valrhona, you won’t use all the chocolate but it is much easier to melt more chocolate to make these chocolate bars)

350 to 400g rapsberry inspiration by Valrhona (idem)

Put the caramel in a pastry bag fitted with a round tip (around 1cm diameter).

Pipe a caramel roll on each shortbread cookie.

On the caramel piped on the cocoa shortbread, place whole hazelnuts by pressing them lightly. On the one piped on plain shortbread, cover the caramel with whole pistachios.

Put them in the fridge / freezer so that the caramel is very hard at the time of coating.

Then prepare your chocolate, the best being to temper it if you can. Observe the temperature curve according to the chocolate chosen, and follow it until you have the right temperature.

Otherwise, melt the ¾ of the chocolate without exceeding 37-38°C. Finely chop the remaining chocolate, and add it to the melted chocolate. Stir well until all of the chocolate is melted.

This way of melting the chocolate without raising the temperature will allow it to recrystallize even if it has not been tempered. You can then make your chocolate bars two ways:

The one I chose, soaking ; you dip the shortbreads covered with caramel and dried fruit in the chocolate, shake to drain and place on a sheet of parchment paper until it crystallizes.

Second solution, you place your bars on a grid and you pour the chocolate over them to coat them (in this case, the underside of the bar will not be covered, that's why I preferred the other technique which allows to have a bar entirely covered with chocolate, which will not crumb and will keep better).

Of course, you can also just melt the chocolate and then keep the bars in the fridge, but if you can temper it or at least respect the temperature and techniques given above, the bars will keep better and you can keep them longer and at room temperature.

Once the chocolate has crystallized, you just have to enjoy it !